The Unspoken Truth Of Adam Sandler
One quantifiable way to measure the success of an actor is to look at how much money they've made. To that end, Adam Sandler is quite possibly the most successful "Saturday Night Live" alum of all time. Love him or hate him, Sandler continues to place highly on lists of the richest actors even decades after the peak of his box office dominance.
While Sandler built his career out of playing larger than life characters, he often comes across as reserved in interviews and generally stays out of the public eye to the extent that's possible considering how famous he is. The unorthodox way in which he seems to handle being a globally recognized star carries over into how he became famous in the first place. Sandler's path to massive success on both the small and big screen, as well as in music and on the stage, was definitely a unique one.
He only got into comedy because his brother talked him into it
It would probably surprise nobody to learn that Adam Sandler was always a goofball, even going back to his early childhood. He loved to make his friends and family laugh, and he was often the class clown. But just because someone loves to perform for the people they know doesn't necessarily mean they are interested in performing for large audiences. Even as he closed in on adulthood, Sandler hadn't even considered trying to make a career out of his gift for entertaining people.
Sandler hadn't even thought about trying stand-up until he was 17 years old and his brother, Scott, encouraged him. In a discussion with Ben Stiller for an Interview Magazine piece, Sandler explained, "If [Scott] hadn't said to do it, I wouldn't have thought it was a normal thing to do. I would have said, 'Mom and Dad are going to get mad at me.'" Within just a few years, Sandler was booking big-time acting gigs. He would eventually pay his brother back for the push into a very lucrative career by making Scott the vice president of Happy Madison Productions.
He was born in New York but grew up in New Hampshire
Adam Sandler has always had a connection to New York City, and not just because he got his big break on "Saturday Night Live." Several of his films have been set in the Big Apple, and in early interviews he would typically say either NYC or Brooklyn specifically when asked where he hails from. And that wasn't a lie; he was, in fact, born in Brooklyn. However, he certainly didn't grow up there, as his family moved away from the city when Sandler was just 5 years old.
Sandler lived in Manchester, New Hampshire throughout his childhood and teens up through his attending NYU. In his 30s, Sandler was no longer interested in trying to sell his history as being exclusively Brooklyn based, and he was a lot more honest about — and proud of — the place where he actually spent most of his youth. He goes back to Manchester several times a year to visit family and old friends and has even spent birthdays there. However, like many actors, Sandler eventually made the West Coast his home base — he's lived in various locations across Southern California for most of his adult life, and that's also where he and wife Jackie have raised their two daughters.
His acting professor at NYU told him to choose a different career
Scott Sandler wasn't just a supporter of Adam's comedic chops — he also felt his younger brother had what it took to be an actor as well. So, after talking Adam into trying stand-up comedy, Scott told Adam he should choose acting as his major in college. Once again believing in his brother's faith in him, Adam Sandler was soon taking acting classes at NYU. But not everyone was as convinced of his talents.
In fact, one of his professors took him out for a beer and told him as politely as possible that he didn't have any innate acting chops and should consider a different career path. Years later, after Sandler started earning tens of millions of dollars per film, he was out with his friends and ended up seeing that same professor in a bar. Rather than rub his success in the professor's face or tell his friends what the professor had told him all those years ago, Sandler simply introduced the professor to his friends as the only teacher that had ever bought him a beer. Sandler has a reputation for being one of the nicest and most genuine people in Hollywood, and stories like that only further cement that reputation.
He lived with Judd Apatow when they were both struggling comedians
The footage of a much younger Adam Sandler making a prank phone call at the beginning of Judd Apatow's bittersweet comedy "Funny People" wasn't just something Sandler gave Apatow to use — it was shot by Apatow himself around 1990 when the pair were roommates in Los Angeles. The pals were both struggling comedians at the time, and as many folks in their situation do, they shared an apartment in order to save money.
Even when Sandler got cast on "Saturday Night Live," he wasn't convinced he had truly made it. For a while, he continued to pay his half of the rent for his and Apatow's shared Los Angeles apartment, so he would have a place to go if "SNL" didn't work out. Of course, he did just fine. To be fair, so did Apatow. Though it would be some time before "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" made him a Hollywood filmmaker to watch, Apatow had already co-created the critically acclaimed "The Ben Stiller Show" in 1992 and followed that up with writing and producer credits on "The Larry Sanders Show," "Freaks and Geeks," and "Undeclared."
His first lead movie role actually came before SNL
The Internet has done a pretty good job of reminding the world that Adam Sandler did a short stint on "The Cosby Show" before "Saturday Night Live." Indeed, those episodes — the first of which aired in 1988 — are his earliest screen credit. Many are also aware that Sandler had a minor recurring gig on the MTV game show "Remote Control," co-hosted by future "Weekend Update" anchor Colin Quinn.
On the big screen, Sandler played small roles in the films "Shakes the Clown," "Coneheads," and "Mixed Nuts," with his biggest pre-"Billy Madison" role being in the Brendan Fraser-led comedy "Airheads." At least, that's how most people remember it. In reality, Sandler made a movie before any of those films, and he was the lead, no less. That movie was 1989's "Going Overboard," clearly built to be the breakout star vehicle for the young comedian. But it came and went with little fanfare and would've been completely forgotten by history had it not been for Sandler eventually becoming famous. With "Billy Madison" a hit and "Happy Gilmore" in the works, "Going Overboard" finally got its first-ever home video release in 1995 — six years after it flopped in theaters.
He's a Grammy-nominated, multiplatinum-selling recording artist
One of the ways that Adam Sandler stood out during his time on "Saturday Night Live" was through his appearances on "Weekend Update" — often with some sort of musical component. Whether it was delivering the news in a singsong fashion as Opera Man or debuting a soon-to-be classic holiday song, many of Sandler's best "SNL" moments involved him performing music, and he parlayed that into a full-blown recording career.
Sandler's comedy albums are typically a mix of songs — both tunes he made famous on "SNL" and all-new numbers — and comedy skits. Right from the start, it proved both a successful and critically acclaimed aspect of his portfolio. "They're All Gonna Laugh At You!" and "What the Hell Happened to Me?" each went double-platinum and got nominated for best spoken comedy album at the Grammys. His next two releases also went gold, while "Stan & Judy's Kid" brought a third Grammy nomination. How most recent album, an audio version of his well-received 2018 Netflix special "100% Fresh," debuted at #2 on the Billboard Comedy Albums chart.
He draws from personal experience when playing angry characters
Much of Adam Sandler's "Happy Gilmore" is built around the juxtaposition between the titular character's explosive rage and the calm, often stuffy culture surrounding the sport of golf. Sandler's first major dramatic outing, "Punch-Drunk Love," sees the actor play a man who seems to be in constant struggle against a violent rage always bubbling just beneath the surface. A few movies later, "Anger Management" would poke a little fun at the concept, with Sandler's lead character constantly provoked into angry outbursts by co-star Jack Nicholson.
Even in movies where temper control — or lack thereof — isn't the central conceit, Sandler often plays characters who have at least one or two comically exaggerated blow-ups. As it turns out, there's a reason why Sandler is so good at playing these types of characters. By his own admission, he has had his own struggles with controlling his temper, though he's mellowed out with age. As he explained to AARP in 2022, "I'm calmer than I used to be. I used to go nuts. I had a quick temper, quick reactions." As to why he so often turns to anger as a comedic element, Sandler has said that his father would often simply laugh at him when he'd have a rage flare-up, which allowed him to eventually find the comedy in characters who would explode in ridiculous ways.
Rob Schneider introduced him to his wife
Adam Sandler has been married to Jackie Sandler (née Titone) since 2003. The couple are often seen together smiling wide at events, sometimes with daughters Sadie and Sunny in tow. Jackie has appeared in many of Adam's films over the years in roles of varying sizes, beginning with "Big Daddy." In fact, it was on the set of that movie — wherein Jackie plays a waitress — that the future spouses first met.
Plenty of people know that story already. What isn't as well known, however, is that "Big Daddy" wasn't Jackie's first movie. In fact, it wasn't even her first Happy Madison movie. Though "Big Daddy" was released first, Jackie had previously worked on "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo." Though Sandler plays a small role in that film, he and Jackie didn't cross paths at all during production. Rather, "Deuce Bigalow" star Rob Schneider told Sandler about Jackie and suggested he work with her, so he got her a part in "Big Daddy." So, the couple have Schneider to thank for their love connection. Additionally, Jackie has been a positive influence on Sandler's career, being the one to push him out of his comfort zone into taking on more challenging films like "Uncut Gems" that he might not have tried otherwise.
He is involved with and donates to a number of charities
While critics aren't always Adam Sandler fans, that hasn't stopped his movies from being hugely successful. In fact, his current net worth is estimated to be in excess of $400 million. Considering he was taking home $20 million per film at one point — plus the nine-figure Netflix deal he signed in 2020 — it's not hard to believe that number is close to accurate. Whatever amount of money he actually has in the bank, there's no denying how generous Sandler has been with it over the years.
According to the celebrity charity tracking website Look to the Stars, Sandler supports close to 20 different charities and foundations. Among the organizations he has given money to over the years are the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Toys for Tots, Stand Up To Cancer, Autism Speaks, the Animal Rescue Foundation, and Feeding America. In addition, Sandler donated $1 million alone specifically to the Boys & Girls Club in his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire.
He's won more acting awards than you might realize
When told that Adam Sandler has a lot of acting awards on his mantel, it's easy to assume that statement to mean things like MTV Movie Awards or Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. And of course, there are the Golden Raspberry Awards, of which Sandler has won several from a whopping 28 nominations. But the actor has been recognized by more legitimately prestigious award-granting organizations than moviegoers might realize.
Of course, there was his 2020 Independent Spirit Award win for "Uncut Gems" — which apparently satiated him enough that he didn't feel compelled to make good on his jokey threat to make the worst movie of his career if he didn't get an Oscar nomination for "Uncut Gems." It was his first major association win, though not his first nomination. He had previously been nominated for a Golden Globe for "Punch-Drunk Love," and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy four different times for his work on "Saturday Night Live" plus a fifth nomination for "100% Fresh."
In 2023, he got another nomination from a major association when the Screen Actors Guild nominated him for best actor for the sports dramedy "Hustle." Among the other awards Sandler has won over the years are two Boston Society of Film Critics awards, a National Board of Review award, a Hollywood Film award, a CinemaCon award, a Gijón International Film Festival award, nine People's Choice awards, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2023.
He almost starred in two different Oscar-nominated films
Not only has Adam Sandler never been nominated for an Academy Award, but he's also generally not in movies that get any Academy Award nominations at all. In fact, even his movies that were widely recognized by various other award-granting institutions — like "Punch-Drunk Love," "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)," and "Uncut Gems" — were completely shut out of the Oscars. Well, "Click" did get an Oscar nomination for best makeup, but that's the sole outlier.
However, Sandler was intended to be in not one but two films that were eventual Oscar nominees. He was originally attached to the 2004 Michael Mann thriller "Collateral," but was forced to drop out as he had already committed to filming "Spanglish" during the window that "Collateral" was to go into production. The part Sandler was going to play in that movie went to Jamie Foxx instead ... and Foxx earned an Oscar nomination for his efforts. Later, none other than Quentin Tarantino wrote the part of Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz in "Inglourious Basterds" specifically for Sandler. Once again, scheduling issues got in the way, and Eli Roth took over the role instead. Sandler was that close to appearing in a best picture nominee.
His political leanings are a frequent topic of speculation
As previously mentioned, Adam Sandler tends to be a fairly private guy. And when he does do interviews or make public appearances, you would be hard-pressed to find him making anything approaching an actual political statement. His social media post calling for peace in the 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict is generally about as political as Sandler gets — and even then, he was speaking out against war and violence in general, which is hardly a controversial sentiment. Still, this hasn't stopped people from speculating on Sandler's politics over the years.
He often shows up on lists of celebrities who are right-leaning, conservative, and-slash-or side with Republican politicians, up to and including that he is a supporter of Donald Trump. However, Snopes debunked the latter claim, referring to a Yahoo report stating that someone named Adam Sandler did in fact donate to Trump's 2020 presidential campaign — but it wasn't the Adam Sandler. Still, it's true that Sandler did perform at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and that he did donate money to Rudy Giuliani's 2008 presidential bid. So he has definitely shown a proclivity towards the Republican Party in the past. But that 2008 donation is the most recent citable example of him doing so, and Sandler himself hasn't said anything publicly on the subject since.
He started out as just a writer on SNL
After spending a few years as an up-and-coming actor and stand-up comedian, Adam Sandler landed the dream job of so many of his peers — joining the cast of "Saturday Night Live." When then-current cast member and "Weekend Update" host Dennis Miller caught one of Sandler's stage sets, he recommended the young comedian to "SNL" head Lorne Michaels. So, Michaels had Sandler audition alongside Chris Rock, coincidentally enough.
Both were hired, but only Rock was brought on to be a performer. Sandler was initially added to the "SNL" family in 1990 as a writer and spent his first six months or so on the show mostly behind the scenes with only a few brief appearances on camera. Sandler told Howard Stern that he got some sketches on the air pretty quickly into his tenure, which isn't easy for a new writer. Unfortunately, he wasn't actually in any of them. But he kept at it, and by the spring of 1991, he slowly started to get into more and more sketches until he was a fully featured cast member.
He is conflicted on the erasure of The Cosby Show
The earliest examples of actual legal action against Bill Cosby over misconduct allegations occurred in the mid-2000s. But it would take another 10 years or so — and some fiery jokes about him by comedian Hannibal Buress to go viral — for the world to finally pay attention to Cosby's long history of alleged abuse of women. Among the hits that Cosby's legacy took in the face of the growing number of women to speak out against him was his iconic sitcom "The Cosby Show," with several networks pulling reruns out of rotation and the show remaining unavailable on any of streaming platforms to this day.
Various cast members of "The Cosby Show" have been asked their opinion on the show being essentially scrubbed from the airwaves, including some actors who were only on the show a short time. That includes Adam Sandler, who — despite only having four episodes of the show to his credit — was asked by Global Grind if it's fair to everyone else who worked on the show that it has disappeared in the wake of Cosby's actions alone. He told the outlet, "I don't have a good answer for that, but I understand both sides of it, but I don't know what the right thing to do is."
He claims he and Chris Farley weren't technically fired from SNL
With the apparent exceptions of Kenan Thompson, Darrell Hammond, and of course, Lorne Michaels himself, nobody gets to be a "Saturday Night Live" lifer. Every few years, the show has historically done a sort of soft reboot wherein some of the existing veterans depart and make room for a fresh batch of performers to lead "SNL" into its next generation. Some people leave voluntarily, while others are essentially fired. So, which one happened to Adam Sandler?
Well, for years the story was that he and his friend and "SNL" co-star Chris Farley were fired in 1995, leaving only David Spade — who was gone the following year — left from the so-called "Bad Boys of SNL" era. He even sang a song about it when he finally hosted the show for the first time in 2019, repeating several times throughout the tune that he was in fact fired. However, in 2023 he clarified the situation a bit in a discussion with The Hollywood Reporter: "It was kind of like them asking us to quit. There were new people at the network, and apparently they didn't like me and Chris, so they kind of said goodbye to us in a nice way." He technically wasn't fired, but it sounds like he didn't exactly quit voluntarily, either.
He spends as much time with his daughters as he can
Once Adam Sandler's career got going, it barely let up. The actor has been in at least one movie almost every year since 1993, on top of various television appearances, plus recording and touring with his music. But that shouldn't suggest that he hasn't made it a priority to be a full-time father and family man. Not only does Sandler cast his wife and daughters in a lot of his movies, but he also makes sure he is as present in his kids' lives as he can possibly be.
Sandler's daughters — Sadie and Sunny — attend the kind of schools that don't turn away parents who want to drop by and have lunch with their children. Well, at least not parents who are Adam Sandler. Sandler has said that he will often go to his daughters' school and not only eat with them but also bring them food to enjoy together. A family favorite seems to be the West Coast fast food chain In-N-Out Burger. In fact, to hear him tell it, he knows better than to show up with anything else.
He guilted Howard Stern into a rare apology
Radio personality Howard Stern has built his career out of speaking his mind and not backing down from the backlash that comes from it. He's upset plenty of people over the years, and when he hears that he's done so, his response is typically akin to a shrug. However, when it came to the revelation that Adam Sandler was upset with him, Stern actually showed remorse. Well, eventually. In 2012, Stern shared his thoughts on why Sandler had never come on "The Howard Stern Show," saying it was probably because Stern had so often dunked on Sandler's films. But not being able to resist throwing in another barb, Stern added, "...but, am I the only one criticizing the content in [Sandler's] movies?"
Three years later, Sandler finally appeared on Stern's show for the first time ever and confirmed that he had felt betrayed at Stern's insults, as Sandler said he had been a huge fan of Stern's prior to that. Sandler said that his friends and colleagues spent years pushing him to do the show, and he never wanted to because of Stern's constant mocking of Sandler and his films. It got to the point that Stern actually told Sandler, ""I always felt bad about all the years we didn't speak. I really did because I was a total f—ing a–hole."
Bad reviews only bother him on behalf of his co-star friends
While Adam Sandler might have taken Howard Stern's insults to heart, the actor has generally made peace with the fact that critics don't care for his work. Initially, he was taken aback when reviews for his first big movie — "Billy Madison" — came in and were largely negative. And so was the overall critical reception to follow-ups "Happy Gilmore" and "The Wedding Singer." But eventually, Sandler decided it would be best to just not read reviews at all. In typical diplomatic fashion, Sandler told Entertainment Weekly, "It's okay, I get it. Critics aren't going to connect with certain stuff and what they want to see. I understand that it's not clicking with them."
That isn't to say that he doesn't care at all about his movies getting bad press. It's just that he's looking out for how his co-stars are going to take it. During his Howard Stern appearance, Sandler lamented the fact that he invites a lot of his friends to be in his movies — and doesn't want to feel like he let them down by putting them in bad movies when they read the inevitable scathing reviews. Considering how many of those friends keep coming back for movie after movie, it's safe to say that they're not too concerned about what critics think of the films, either.
He's got legitimate basketball skills
Sports have often played a major role in Adam Sandler's filmography, whether it's the titular hockey player turned golfer in "Happy Gilmore," a football savant in "The Waterboy," or an NBA scout in "Hustle." Basketball in particular seems to be a recurring theme in Sandler's films which, in addition to how often he's seen courtside at NBA games, makes it pretty clear he's a huge fan of the sport.
But it turns out that he's not only devoted to watching basketball — he's also been known to shoot some hoops himself from time to time. In a post on the SportsCenter X account captioned "Adam Sandler pulled up to a pickup game and got buckets," a video highlights some of Sandler's impressive moves on the court. When Sandler appeared on "Good Morning America" with "Grown Ups 2" co-star Shaquille O'Neal, the NBA legend gushed about Sandler's proficiency in the sport, saying "Adam is a damn good player." When he thought Sandler was trying to interject and make a joke, Shaq wasn't having it. He continued, "No, no, really good; good passer, good shooter, knows the game."